ACTA SCIENTIARUM POLONORUM - SGGW

Business demography issues and empirical research on dynamics of enterprises’... 73The greatest increase in birth rates was observed in the construction sector. Birth ratefor this sector increased from 10% in 2002–2004 to 25% in 2008. The birth rate for “Otherservices” remained few pp higher than in the industry and services sectors (see Figure 2).PROCESS OF ENTERPRISES’ DEATHS IN YEARS 1997–2009The analysis of business death process is much more difficult as it is impossible tomake adjustments to the definition provided by Eurostat. According to Eurostat’s definition,a death means exiting the market with no return within the period of 2 years. In thecase of Poland it is difficult to access data at the individual level using REGON register.Further research and calculations are required to reconstruct individual unit history.A death rate would mean the proportion of the number of enterprises deleted fromthe register during the reference year to the mean number of active enterprises during thereference year presented in percent (see formula 2).Data presented in Figure 3 concerns quantities without correction due to no returnwithin 2 years. Assuming that the proportion of returning enterprises is stable, we canconclude on some basic changes in the dynamics of death process.At present, the death rate amounts to ca. 12%. During the period 1997–2009 the deathrate dropped from 18% to 12%. Yet, the trend was not the same during the analyzed period.A downturn trend was noticed in the years 1997–2002, whereas in the years 2002––2009 an upturn trend was observed. The lowest level of the death rate amounting to ca.7–10% was observed in the period 1999–2004.The comparison between the birth rate and death rate shows the actual increase in thepopulation of enterprises in Poland.3025death rate in %201510501997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009yearsFig. 3. Enterprise death rates in Poland, 1997–2009Rys. 3. Współczynniki “zgonów” przedsiębiorstw w Polsce, 1997–2009Source: Own calculations based on CSO data.Źródło: Opracowanie własne na podstawie danych GUS.Oeconomia 10 (1) 2011